Moore defends vote on gasoline pricing

Published 8:00 pm, Friday, September 9, 2005

Rep. Tim Moore, R-Farwell, rejected a charge that he and other Republicans should be ashamed because of a vote this week related to gasoline pricing.

"Mandates plus taxes equal job losses," Moore said.

He was responding to a prepared statement in which Pete Voydanoff, Clare County Democratic Party vice chairman, said, "With the highest unemployment rate in the nation, Michigan's working families are already strapped. We need relief at the pump and the Republicans are preventing that. Republicans like Rep. Tim Moore should be ashamed."

Moore was criticized for voting against requiring all gasoline sold in Michigan to contain 10 percent ethanol and against establishing a 5 percent biodiesel requirement for diesel fuel.

"We do need to look at alternate sources" of fuel, Moore said. But "biodiesel is going to cost more," and added costs of selling biodiesel at service stations would be passed along to customers, he said.

Biodiesel is an alternative to purely petroleum-based diesel fuel.

Republicans "sided with the oil and gas industries and against the people of Michigan," former Gladwin County Commissioner Kathy Wilton said in the prepared statement. "The Democrats have a solution but the Republicans are stalling."

Wilton said use of alternative fuels will create jobs and help Michigan's economy.

"I'm hard pressed to find a flaw in the Democrats' plan," Voydanoff said. "We need jobs, we need lower gas prices and we need to decrease our dependency on foreign oil. The Republicans are making it impossible for Michigan to progress."

Moore said Republicans want to cut taxes for all businesses, not only some businesses as Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm proposed.

He also said the e-mailed news release from Wilton and Voydanoff, is "the 2006 election starting early."